Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

Book: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A memoir in Books
Author: Azar Nafisi
Paperback: 384 pages
Fame: New York Times bestseller list for over one hundred weeks and has been translated into thirty-two languages
Challenge: OT Challenge 2009 (Iran)

The cover of the book which has two young women wearing head scarves, bent over something sets the perfect context. The title of the book suggests they are reading Lolita - which is about an older man's obsession with a 12 yr old girl (nymph) and the ensuing sexual assault - in Tehran (Iran) which is perceived to be a conservative Islamic. The cover of the book actually resulted in a lot of controversy in that the actual picture was of the two girls reading a reformist news paper which was cropped and misrepresented.

The book to me had very minimal to do with what the cover and the title suggested. It highlights the power of literary fiction and its ability to take people to this imaginative land and let their mind free.

Azar Nafisi has divided her memoir into 4 sections, Lolita, Gatsby, James and Austen - four of her favorite authors and draws parallel to their works with her life and life of people surrounding hers during different phases. She was born in Iran before the Islamic Revolution when it was lauded to be one of the most progressive nations. Her mother was one of the first elected to the parliament. Azar herself was educated in England and then obtained her doctorate from University of Oklahoma. But after the Islamic Revolution, people and women especially go through a huge culture change in the name of religion. Legal age of marriage comes down from 18 to 9. This is where the irony of Lolita where the sexual assault of a 12 yr old is termed as 'rape' and in Iran a child is eligible to be married long before that.

Drawn to her country, Azar returns back to Iran after 18 years and is unable to accept the rules of the law. She goes into self-exile (where she hides herself inside the huge kimono like robe and pretends to be invisible because she is forced to veil) and quits teaching. Later she forms a book reading group with her former students.

'Lolita' gives glimpses into the lives of these young women and critiques various other works of Vladimir Nabokov. In 'Gatsby' and 'James' Azar Nafisi gives us her perspective of how the Iran-Iraq war began, how it affected her and the people around her and abruptly how it ended. In 'Austen' we see the post war inner conflicts she goes through and her decision to move back to US. Through this journey, she highlights her 'girls' journey as well. One is imprisoned and later released, one is killed, one lives with an abusive husband, one goes through a broken engagement etc.. things that happen to people in other countries as well. But she highlights the inner conflicts they go through because they have never been taught to love themselves hence do not know where to start.

After I read the book and googled it out of curiosity, I learned that it has some criticism by Columbia Professor Hamid Dabashi, who sees the book as basically being propaganda for the Bush administration to attack countries like Iran and Iraq. Literature professor Fatemeh Keshavarz wrote a book entitled Jasmines and Stars: Reading more than Lolita in Tehran. She believes that Nafisi's book presents "many damaging misrepresentations" of Iran and its people, relying more on stereotype and easy comparison than on an accurate portrayal of the country and its people.

Despite the criticism the book might have received, Nafisi also calls for self-criticism. In her speech at the 2004 National Book Festival, Nafisi said: "It is wrong to put all the blame on the Islamic regime or...on the Islamic fundamentalists. It is important to probe and see what...you [did] wrong to create this situation."

Bottom Line: It is a great book for any book lover, much more so for literature lovers. The way the authors are debated ('Gatsby' is put on trial) and analyzed it a treat.